14 DAY TRIAL // The office of His Holiness the Pope announced that Benedict XVI will have a discussion with members of Expedition 27 aboard the International Space Station (ISS) this Saturday, on May 21.
The conversation is scheduled to last for about 20 minutes, and is slated to begin at around 13:11 CEST (1111 GMT). The Pontiff will make the call from the Vatican Library, in Vatican City, Rome.
At this point, the six astronauts of Expedition 27 are joined in orbit by the six-member crew of space shuttle Endeavour, which arrived at the orbital outpost on May 18. The spacecraft launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida, on May 16.
The joint crew will be part of this unique occasion. This is the first time that the Pope ever calls the ISS, and speaks to astronauts during their mission. Thus far, only heads of state have been known to make official phone calls to the orbital lab.
During this first-ever conversation, his Holiness will be accompanied in the Foconi Room of the Vatican Library by the ESA director of Human Spaceflight and Operations, Thomas Reiter.
The President of the Italian Space Agency (ISA), Enrico Saggese, and General Giuseppe Bernardis of the Italian Air Force (IAF) will also attend the event live. The European Space Agency will broadcast the call on several channels.
According to an announcement made by ESA representatives, Benedict XVI will address the 12 astronauts in English, but will also exchange a few words in Italian with ESA astronauts Roberto Vittori and Paolo Nespoli.
The former is the last mission specialist to fly on an American space shuttle on behalf of the European organization. The only remaining shuttle flight after Endeavour's will feature an all-NASA crew.
On the other hand, Nespoli is a flight engineer for the current ISS crew. He is scheduled to descend back to Earth after a six-month stay on the space lab. The ESA astronaut arrived on the ISS in December 2010, and will return later this month.
The talks will be broadcast by ESA TV and streamed on the Internet.
Broadcasters can find the satellite broadcasting parameters at the ESA TV website.
Internet media can embed ESA’s online web stream or link to the video player.
The video will be available for download at ESA's archive on Monday, 23 May.